In order to finish my MFA, I had to create a written statement, which along with all of my 3rd-year onstage work serves as my Master's thesis. I share it with you here, along with a little picture from graduation, which indicates how I felt about the entire thing:
MFA ON WHEELS
MFA
Actor training: three years of character schizophrenia, interpersonal
conflagration, fatigue-based medical challenges, alienation from the “normal”
world, and interrupted connection with family, friends, home, and equilibrium.
So…WHY?
Moreover, being a person who navigates the world on wheels and already
endures the unique stresses of spinal cord injury, why instigate a reworking of
philosophies in a program that has been based on bipedal bodily status quos?
Some might think I
had something to prove. And they’d
be correct. From my first moment
onstage at UCSD, I charged myself to prove my own worth and the collective value
of a population that has been historically and systematically cast out,
marginalized, and devalued, even in the artistic community.
My three years at
UCSD have exposed every ounce of potential tucked inside the mysterious
instrument that is my body…even in my apparently non-feeling, “quiet”
parts. My philosopher self has
learned to externalize the internal; to translate cerebrations into action that
can be observed and absorbed onstage by my fellow human beings. And now I can roll forward, on-voice,
full-body, with an active heart and clear intention, to awaken others from
their life malaise and illustrate that things can be more than what they
seem. Hopefully I will encourage
other “abby-normal” humans to embrace the uniqueness of their identities and
break out of their fears, hurts, and set conceptions of reality to engage with
the world. To be a do-er. A live-er. An ACTor. To be
exact, an MFA – Mothafuckin’ Actor – on Wheels.
And now, into the fray of LA (where I have relocated) to make my way as an actor. Next up: a reflection on my first month in Los Angeles. :-)
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